Digital Commons Network^™

Separation And Surface Examination Of Spacecraft Cabin Particulates, Grace A. Belancik

Master's Theses

Particulate matter in the atmosphere is a known detriment to human health, but several factors affect any particulate’s particular toxicity including particle size, surface area, and chemical composition. Extensive studies have been conducted to examine particulate hazards on Earth, but in crewed spacecraft, like the International Space Station (ISS), the particulate environment is wholly unique due to both the controlled environment and lack of gravity. Atmospheric sampling studies are underway, but another convenient source of airborne particulates for analysis is the contents of the vacuum bags used by the astronauts to clean the air vents. However, no method currently exists …

Landslide Prediction Using Time-Series Decomposition, Reinforcement Learning-Based Feature Selection And Ml Models, Mohith Sai Venkat Ankem

Master's Projects

Landslides pose significant risks to human life, the community, and the environment, yet their prediction remains a complex and unexplored challenge. Existing prediction models often rely on surface measurements and satellite images, neglecting the critical role, in providing deeper insights into landslide analysis. The literature review highlights a lack of research in time series decomposition techniques, despite their potential to improve prediction accuracy. Similarly, feature selection methods that enhance model robustness and precision have not been adequately addressed. This study presents a novel approach to predicting landslide displacement by combining feature selection through reinforcement learning techniques with advanced time-series machine …

The Inequitable Access: Black And Latinx Students In Ap Courses, Jean C. Woolcock

Dissertations

This study posits that in American high schools, the preparation of Black and Latinx students, starting from the freshman year, can be effective in helping to increase their participation in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Structural inequities, in how schools are resourced, affect the ways in which Black and Latinx students are denied equal opportunities. On the contrary, members of their peers do obtain this kind of preparation. As a framework, Critical Race Theory (CRT) contends that race, the law, and power are deeply ingrained in maintaining established bastions of wealth and dominance. Gaps in opportunity and achievement spill over into …

Educator Perspectives Of High School Long-Term English Learners, Martin Gutierrez Jr.

Dissertations

This qualitative study was twofold. The study began by exploring how educators perceive students who are Long Term English Learners (LTELs) and then moved to an autoethnographic examination of the researcher’s own secondary school experiences as an LTEL. The research reviewed teacher and administrator perceptions by focusing on three high school teachers who taught Long Term English Learners during the study period to understand the reclassification process. The researcher interviewed a district-level administrator to understand institutional policies and procedures that determine LTEL student identification and reclassification processes. The researcher presented their autoethnographic narrative to explore how holistic measures support multilingual …

"Acoustical Bedlam": A Contextualization Of Beethoven's Christus, Leanna R. York

The Beethoven Journal

The premiere of Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge at the Theater an der Wien on April 5, 1803, marked the composer’s first and only contribution to the complex tradition of the German oratorio. Since the genre’s inception at the turn of the eighteenth century, it reflected artistic, literary, and theological controversies of its day. Beethoven’s chosen theme, the passion of Christ, came with its own set of ever-shifting compositional and textual expectations, influenced by older traditions of sepolcri and staged oratorios (common in Vienna and at the court of the elector of Cologne after mid-century) and lyric works such as Graun’s …

Second Thoughts? Czerny, Beethoven, And The Ninth Symphony’S Choral Finale, Mark Evan Bonds

The Beethoven Journal

Sometime after the premiere of the Ninth Symphony, according to Carl Czerny, Beethoven told a small circle of friends that he had made a “wrong choice” in writing a choral finale, that he was resolved to write a purely instrumental finale in its place, and that he already had an idea in his head for the new finale. Czerny never committed this report to writing, but he did transmit it orally to three others who did: Leopold von Sonnleithner, Otto Jahn, and Gustav Nottebohm. Anton Schindler would later deny the report, but the available evidence strongly supports the veracity of …

Innovative Sonorities: Atypical Pitch Orders In Beethoven's Piano Trios, Yoko Maruyama

The Beethoven Journal

In his chamber music with keyboard, Beethoven famously emancipated the cello from its bass function to make it equal with the other instruments, as has been repeatedly noted. Some studies have also highlighted, partly in relation to this emancipation, the sonorous balance between strings and piano in Beethoven’s chamber works. The pitch relationship between the cello and violin in his piano trios has been less discussed, yet attending to both parts reveals a tendency to use an atypical order in which the cello’s pitch is set above the violin or between the violin’s chord tones. This tendency increases from Beethoven’s …

Review Of From The Ruins Of Enlightenment: Beethoven And Schubert In Their Solitude By Richard Kramer, Sarah Waltz

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Catholic Beethoven By Nicholas Chong, David Wyn Jones

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Conference Report: 200th Anniversary Of Beethoven's 1824 Academy Concerts (Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, 2024), Mary Kirchdorfer, Cheston Humphries

The Beethoven Journal

No abstract provided.

Science, Physiology, And Nutrition For The Nonscientist, Judi S. Morrill

Open Educational Resources

A wonderful blend of physiology, nutrition, biochemistry, genetics, biology, evolution, chemistry--what we all need to know as informed citizens. A basic knowledge of the life sciences and how our bodies work--to promote our own good health, especially as we're bombarded with misleading advertisements, soundbites, and the like. DNA fingerprinting, calorie requirements, dietary advice, genetic engineering (including gene editing with CRISPR cas9)--all in an easy-to understand book.

Realities Of Nutrition, Judi S. Morrill

Open Educational Resources

What Is Nutrition Reality? Is it in the advertising claims that a food is natural or supplies instant energy? Is it in the myriad of dietary supplements? Is it in the diet plans for instant weight loss and glowing health? The only way to find out is to learn the basic principles of nutrition science, so you can be your own nutrition expert. Here is the true introduction to nutrition that you will read with pleasure and real understanding. It will free you from dependence on popular sources of information - often misinformation - so you can distinguish illusion from …

Carbohydrate Counting: Traditional Filipino Food Lists For Management And Prevention Of Diabetes Mellitus, Ashwini Wagle

Open Educational Resources

The Carbohydrate Counting tool was created to address the specific dietary needs of the Filipino population. It is an original intellectual work by Ashwini Wagle, Ed.D., MS, RD, Chair of the Department of Nutrition, Food Science, and Packaging at San Jose State University (SJSU).

The development of this tool was made possible through the collaboration and support of several contributors. Serena Starr, MS; Justine Martinez Cuaresma, MS, RD; Nazli Goudarzi, MS; Leah Olaivar; and Joe Johnston—a graduate student in the Department—played integral roles in the project. Their contributions included verifying the authenticity of traditional foods, designing culturally appropriate meal plans, …

Rondo: A Minimal Single Page Application For Digital Exhibits, Nick Szydlowski

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Minimal computing is a promising conceptual framework for digital humanities infrastructure, but the static site architecture most commonly associated with minimal computing can present a steep learning curve, particularly in a workshop or classroom context. This article introduces Rondo, a new minimal framework for digital exhibits which requires no software installation or command line interaction. Rondo differentiates itself from static site tools by adopting a single page application architecture with data stored in a Google Sheet, but it includes tools to disconnect from Google Sheets and create a static site with no external dependencies. Rondo’s reliance on Google Sheets reflects …

Evidence-Based Strategies For Novice Teachers: Increasing The Participation Of Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder In Integrated Physical Education, Kristina K. Vargo, Jihyun Lee

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder that impacts approximately 1 in 36 students. Because of its high prevalence, it is likely that all physical education teachers will serve students with ASD during their careers. Although physical education leads to many improvements in students’ physical and social skills, students with ASD may experience challenges in the integrated physical education setting due to various factors, including motivation, skill proficiency, challenging behaviors, and sensory stimulation. The purpose of this article is to describe the challenges faced by some students with ASD in integrated physical education and to provide novice teachers …

Poster: Synthetic Malware Generation Using Generative Models, Tiffany Bao, Kylie Trousil, Quang Duy Tran, Fabio Di Troia, Younghee Park

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Malware poses significant challenges to cybersecurity, exacerbated by the scarcity of high-quality datasets. This paper explores the use of Diffusion and Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks with Gradient Penalty (WGAN-GP) to generate synthetic malware samples as opcode sequences. The synthetic data, validated through classification metrics, demonstrates improved malware detection accuracy across families, particularly in addressing zero-day attacks. Results show that Diffusion achieves up to 99.6% accuracy in multi-class classification, outperforming WGAN-GP, which reaches up to 96.1%. Incorporating synthetic samples improves detection accuracy for rare malware families by up to 100%, underscoring the potential of generative models in enhancing malware detection.

Inspection Technologies For Construction And Maintenance Of Highway Infrastructure – Review And Analysis, Manideep Tummalapudi, Prem Raj Timilsena

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and state Departments of Transportation (DOTs) seek to provide high quality infrastructure that meets or exceeds the desired quality standards crucial for ensuring safety and efficiency in our nation's transportation systems. Efficient inspection practices—which enable conformance with plans, specifications, and quality standards—are an essential part of this effort. In this digital age, state DOTs are relying on emerging technologies to improve inspection practices. However, there is limited knowledge available regarding various emerging technologies used for highway infrastructure construction and maintenance inspection. This study identifies various emerging technologies that are implemented at the state DOTs and …

Conceptual Critical Success Factors Model On Infrastructure Sustainability Rating System For California Construction Projects, Joseph J. Kim, Jose A. Arroyo-Turcios

Mineta Transportation Institute

This report addresses the sensitivity and reliability of the sustainability rating systems by comparing each category’s verified scores with its respective submitted scores to evaluate how points are awarded for infrastructure projects, examine which categories present the most challenges for verification, and identify the best category for verification in the sustainability rating system. The authors conducted three analyses using credit score data obtained from fourteen actual civil infrastructure projects certified under Envision. First, the Natural World category had the highest average score from the submitted and verified data. Pairwise comparisons using t-tests indicate that the mean value of one category …

Words And Stardom: Modernist Poetic Responses To Asta Nielsen, Karl E. Toepfer

Open Educational Resources

This essay discusses how four modernist poets portrayed the Danish movie star Asta Nilesen (1881-1972). German Hans Schiebelhuth (1895-1944) describes the "demonic" power of Nielsen's image to awaken dark aspects of his adolscent personality. For the Flemish poet Paul van Ostaijen (1896-1928), Nielsen's cinematic image provokes a radical shattering of language into extravagant "word-images." Danish writer Rudolf Broby-Johansen (1900-1987) linked Nielsen's image to a radical (Marxist) critique of oppressive sexual politics within a capitalist society. German Franz Behrens (1895-1977) composed a lengthy, expressionist ode to Nielsen from the perspective of one who actually worked as a screenwriter in the German …

Measurement Resolution Enhanced Coherence For Lattice Fermions, Hilary M. Hurst, Yik Haw Teoh, I. B. Spielman

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Weak measurement enables the extraction of targeted information from a quantum system while minimizing decoherence due to measurement backaction. However, in many-body quantum systems, backaction can have unexpected effects on wave-function collapse. We theoretically study a minimal many-particle model consisting of weakly measured noninteracting fermions in a one-dimensional lattice. Repeated measurement of the on-site occupation number with single-site resolution stochastically drives the system toward a Fock state, regardless of the initial state. This need not be the case for measurements that do not, even in principle, have single-site spatial resolution. We numerically show for systems with up to 16 sites …

Using A Sober Curious Framework To Explore Barriers And Facilitators To Helping Sexual Minority Women Reduce Alcohol-Related Harms: Protocol For A Descriptive Study, Tonda L. Hughes, Lauren Bochicchio, Laurie A. Drabble, Belinda Lunnay, David Whiteley, Jillian R. Scheer, Beth Meadows, Paul Ward, Carol Emslie

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: Globally, women consume less alcohol than men, but alcohol consumption among women has declined less in recent years than among men. Drinking rates and alcohol-related harms vary substantially across population groups of women, and sexual minority women (eg, lesbian, bisexual, and queer) are at notably high risk. An emerging body of literature suggests that in addition to minority stress (eg, stigma, discrimination), drinking norms and drinking cultures likely influence sexual minority women’s drinking. Almost no research has explored these factors as possible targets of interventions. Sober curiosity is a rapidly growing wellness movement that may be particularly salient for …

A Review Of Social, Behavioral, And Ethical Considerations For Smart Life Engineering, John Murray

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Smart Life (SL) systems do not exist in a technological vacuum; they are embedded in a social ecosystem and have rich and complex interactions with their surroundings. It is important to recognize that their design and implementation will have an impact on the individuals and communities around them. This chapter examines the social, behavioral, and ethical issues to be considered in a holistic systems approach to SL engineering, to help practitioners and stakeholders to design the strategies needed for successful SL deployments. It addresses these topics from several disciplinary viewpoints and provides a comprehensive set of references for those requiring …

Improving Equity, Diversity, And Inclusion In Lis Education: Insights For Curriculum Development And Professional Preparation, Lili Luo

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Objective – To explore how the graduate-level Library and Information Studies (LIS) curriculum can be redesigned to be more socially justice focused and thus better prepare graduates to address equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) issues in their workplace. Design – A cross-sectional, descriptive online survey study. Setting – MA/PG Diploma program in LIS at University College, London (UCL). Subjects – 59 recent graduates from the MA/PG Diploma program in LIS at University College, London (UCL). Methods – Using the descriptive survey methodology, a 13-item online questionnaire was sent to a purposive sample of 733 alumni from the MA/PG Diploma program …

Japanese Incarceration Memorial As Trauma Portfolio Play, A. J. Faas, Alyssa Singh, Cibella Gamma

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In collaboration with the Japanese American Museum of San José, California, we examined their exhibit of WWII-era incarceration of Japanese Americans to understand how the presentation of different positionalities (e.g., Japanese/American, loyal/disloyal) engage with and contest the terms of incarceration and internal politics within the Japanese American community. In our analysis, we focus on the reproduction and contestation of particular narratives of power and identity and treat the memorial exhibit as a variety of community-based “trauma portfolio” that unsettles state bureaucratic constructions of suffering and (in)justice. We conclude by identifying transformative possibilities for engaging with the different positionalities of incarcerated …

Study Finds Pelvic Floor Dysfunction In Women With Multiple Sclerosis Is An Unmet Need Requiring Nursing Action, Nicole Zhang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Reinforcement Learning-Based Dynamic Field Exploration And Reconstruction Using Multi-Robot Systems For Environmental Monitoring, Thinh Lu, Divyam Sobti, Deepak Talwar, Wencen Wu

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In the realm of real-time environmental monitoring and hazard detection, multi-robot systems present a promising solution for exploring and mapping dynamic fields, particularly in scenarios where human intervention poses safety risks. This research introduces a strategy for path planning and control of a group of mobile sensing robots to efficiently explore and reconstruct a dynamic field consisting of multiple non-overlapping diffusion sources. Our approach integrates a reinforcement learning-based path planning algorithm to guide the multi-robot formation in identifying diffusion sources, with a clustering-based method for destination selection once a new source is detected, to enhance coverage and accelerate exploration in …

Ai-Generated Text Detection And Source Identification, Anjana Priyatham Tatavarthi, Faranak Abri, Nada Attar

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The use of advanced machine learning techniques to detect AI-generated text is a very practical application. The ability to distinguish human-written content from machine-generated text while identifying the source generative model helps address growing concerns about authenticity and accountability in digital communication. The differentiation of human-generated and AI-generated text is highly relevant to several applications, from news media to academic integrity, and is key to ensuring transparency and trust in content-driven environments. However, existing models are often insufficient to accurately detect AI-generated text and determine the specific AI source due to the complex nature of machine-generated content. To address this, …

Strengthening Equitable Education Through Latina Leaders’ Perspectives: Foreword, Noni Mendoza Reis

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Resilience Practices In Health Science And Medical Libraries During The Early Stages Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Justin F. Gaynor

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This paper uses the concept of resilience engineering as an organizing principle to discuss best practices that evolved within health science/medical libraries in the United States during COVID-19 crisis, focusing on the period March–August 2020. Protection of library staff, assistance to medical staff, reducing the circulation of misinformation and public health consumerism all required substantial changes to standard processes. These process changes had to arise in the context of both physical isolation and information overload. Some practices became widespread due to their utility, and these are the focus of this report.

Game Theory: Using Play To Talk With My Children About The Unpredictable Road To Recovery, Miranda Worthen

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In this narrative, a mother with an unexpected medical setback creates a board game with her children to talk with them about what happened and share their emotions about the experience.